Climate change Bangladesh
Written by David WhiteBonjournio mon amigos,
Couple more pics for you fine folk. The first one was taken in a tiny village called Forki. I had been walking through the village to take pics of where the water had taken the land, and had found myself quickly surrounded by the local kids. After distracting the youngsters by pointing them towards Ben ( he is very distracting, it can’t be easy being 6’8″ with long blonde hair) I had scooted off away from everyone. On my little journey towards the old school house (see pics below), I came across this lad. He is proudly sporting the latest fashion accessory for young Bangladeshis, the plastic cobra head clamp. I got one myself, but I chose the wrong size, and now I can’t get it off. As usual, the subject held my gaze…I have never known anywhere like Bangladesh for that, it is wonderful. If I put a camera in a strangers face here in the UK it would be embedded in mine quicker than you can say cheese. The lad is standing in front of an upturned, recently tarred fishing boat.
Climate change, Bangladesh, 9.2009. A young boy in Forki village proudly displays his plastic cobra 'hat', his back against the tarred bottom of a fishing boat.
The next one is a lot more sombre, but no less odd methinks. Taken at Alimoddi village, Bhola, this picture just doesn’t make sense. The day previously the cow would have been in a field. The river had burst into the village, destroying the mud dam protecting the village and it’s crops. When you see a flood, you imagine it to be deep…I do at least. Often in Bangladesh the water was no more than a few inches or so deep, but so full of sediment (about a third of the waters that reach the Ganges delta are sediment by the time they get there) that you could not see where the land was, whether it was a foot below the water or 20. It’s quite pretty this picture, in a terribly wrong way.
Climate change Bangladesh 11/2009 Water levels around Alimoddi village on the island of Bhola create the wrong landscape. Image © David White ------------------NO UNAUTHORISED USE------------------------- 07866 361695 0044 (0) 117 9710423 www.nospin.co.uk dave@nospin.co.uk